Always
by gublersocks
Summary: Ten years ago, Emily Prentiss' life changed, forever. Her mother was murdered, and she wanted answers. The case went cold after three years, so she decided it was time to put it behind her. But when new evidence shows up, will there be someone there to help her? And will he be there to catch her when she falls? Of course, there is always a little romance when you have a partner.


**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to CRIMINAL MINDS. This is merely a fun little walk in the park.**

**I apologize for any spelling errors. Let's blame those on Aaron Hotchner.**

**PS: If you recognize any of the lines, leave a review and let me know which TV Show they are from!**

* * *

"_What time is she supposed to be here, Dad?"_

"_She should be here in a few minutes Emily."_

_It was two days before Emily's mother's birthday, and she and her father wanted to have a nice evening at her favorite restaurant. Since her mother was going to be away for her birthday, Emily thought it would be a good idea to do it before she leaves. She had it all planned out. It was supposed to be a perfect night with her family._

_A few minutes turned to half an hour._

_A half an hour turned to two hours._

"_Emily, let's just go home. Maybe she forgot or got held up at work." Her father tried to reassure her._

"_But Dad, she would have called or at least texted one of us. What if something happened?" Emily told him, her voice was shaking with fear._

"_Emily, calm down. I'm sure everything is fine. Let's just head home and we'll call her from there, okay?"_

_Emily looked up at him with eyes full of concern. "Okay…"_

_The drive home was quiet and felt like it took hours to get to the apartment. They finally reached their floor, but they both noticed that their apartment door was open. That's when Emily saw it._

_A homicide detective coming towards them._

"_Mr. Prentiss?"_

_Emily's father looked at the detective with a confused face. "Yes?"_

"_There's been an accident."_

_Emily's heart was racing. "What do you mean an accident?" she practically screamed at him._

_The detective let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "You are both going to want to come inside. I'm sorry to have to tell you this but, your wife has been murdered, sir."_

* * *

"Emily!"

Emily Prentiss looked up from the paperwork she had been staring at for the past fifteen minutes. "Huh?"

"I said, did you know that Hotch and Beth broke up?"

Emily looked at her friend Derek Morgan for a moment before replying. "Are you serious? What happened?"

"I'm not sure, you should ask him." He told her, trying to hide the smirk that was playing on his lips.

Emily gave him a quizzical look. "Why me?"

"Oh, I don't know… Maybe because you have had feelings for him for a_ very_ long time." He pressed, trying to urge on the subject of her and Hotch.

"I have not! What are you playing at Derek Morgan?"

"I'm not_ playing_ at anything, Emily. I'm just saying, you have a chance, you should take it."

Emily sighed. Inside, she knew he was right, but she didn't want to ruin what they have. What they have now is an amazing friendship, which she doesn't want to ruin. "No, you're wrong. I don't have feelings for Hotch. We're friends, and that's it. Besides, we have no chemistry, and even if we did, I have enough things to worry about in my life right now. So, I would appreciate it if you would just drop this and move on because Hotch and I are never going to happen." She snapped at him. Although, she immediately regretted opening her mouth after she saw the look on Derek's face.

She saw him let out a quiet sigh. "Alright, I'm sorry." He apologized to her.

"No, Derek. I'm sorry I snapped at you and you didn't deserve that. It's just been a really tough day for me today, and all I really want to do is curl up on my couch and watch a movie." She told him honestly. Derek let out a soft chuckle at her childlike behavior.

"What's so horrible about today?" he asked her, obviously clueless about the state she was in.

No one at the BAU knew about her mother's murder. Yes, there was a case file about it, but since no one knows about it, it hasn't been opened in ten years. She didn't feel the need to tell her team, because then they would just have pity on her and tell her to go home. She didn't want to be treated like a child. She has dealt with this for ten years now, and she's able to get through this one day.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it." She told him, absent-mindedly fingering her mother's ring on her necklace. Derek looked at her for a moment, but decided to just shrug it off. They both went silent for a moment, before Emily finally decided to get up and hand her completed folder to Hotch.

* * *

There was a quiet on Aaron Hotchner's office door around four o'clock that afternoon.

"Come in," he said to the door. He looked up to see who was entering his office.

The one and only Emily Prentiss.

He had always thought that she was a very attractive woman ever since the day she walked into his office.

"Hey Hotch," she started. He offered her a smile, which she accepted by smiling back at him, and closed his file, giving her his undivided attention. "What can I do for you Prentiss?" he asked her calmly.

She took this time to take a seat across from his desk. "I just wanted to give you these files I finished. I still have about three left, but I can just take them home tonight and finish them." She told him, handing him the case files. Hotch took them from her and smiled. "Thanks. Are you heading out soon?" he asked her.

Emily nodded. "Yeah, at five I'm going home to curl up and watch a movie, hopefully relax a bit after a stressful day." she told him, trying to keep her emotions under control. Her voice was shaky, and Hotch noticed this. He looked at her for a moment and put his pen down.

"Is something wrong? Did something happen today?" he asked her, obviously concerned for his teammate. Emily looked up into his dark brown eyes. He had concern written all over his face. He cared a lot for Emily, and he wanted to help her in any way he could.

She couldn't take it any longer. She couldn't hold any more of it in, it was too much to take. She shook her head as tears started to stream down her cheeks. She didn't bother to wipe her eyes, because she knew that the tears would just keep coming. Hotch immediately stood up and walked over to her, kneeling down in front of her.

"Emily, what's wrong?" he asked her, putting both of his hands on her knees. She looked down and glanced at where his hands were. He was never one to touch someone.

She let out a shaky breath and wiped her face. "Ten years ago today… my mother died." She told him, not wanting to go into detail, but she knew she would have to. Hotch felt himself stiffen at her sentence.

"I'm so sorry, Emily. You can tell me, you know. But, if you don't want to, that's fine." He told her honestly; bringing her into a tight embrace. She accepted his hug, and cried into his shoulder for a good five minutes. They were both quiet for a while, just holding each other. Finally, Emily broke the silence.

"We were supposed to go to dinner together; my mom and my dad and I. She was going to meet us at the restaurant, but she never showed. Two hours later, we went home, and there was a Detective waiting for us. It was Detective Raglan. They found her body. She had been stabbed. It wasn't a robbery because she still had her money and her jewellery. It wasn't a sexual assault either. They classified it as _gang violence; _random wayward event. Just like those hard cases you can't solve, they couldn't think outside the box, so they just tried to package it up nicely, and the killer was never caught." She explained to him. She wasn't done yet though.

"My dad took her death hard, but yet again, so did everyone else; except, he took it the worst. He just became sober five years ago. He gave me his watch, saying he was thankful for having me by his side the entire time. So, this watch is for the life I saved." She told him, pointing to the watch on her left wrist. She then took out her mother's ring on her necklace and showed it to him. "And this, is the for the life I lost." She told him, managing to let a small, sad smile play on her lips.

Hotch looked up at her with sad eyes. "Oh, Emily. I am so sorry that happened to you and your family. You didn't deserve any of that." He told her, brushing away some of her tears. She smiled up at him.

"It just starts to become too much to handle in one day. It hurts too much to think of her on the anniversary of her death. Sometimes, I just need a break, you know?" she told him.

Hotch nodded, remembering the death of Haley; and how hard it was. "I know how you feel, but I'll always be here for you. You can always come to me for help and even if you just need someone to cry on, I'll be there." He told her sweetly.

Emily smiled greatly and let out a soft chuckle. "You're too sweet, Hotch."

He smiled and brought her against his chest again. "Why don't you come over for dinner and a movie tonight? Jack really wants to see you again. It would be fun." He asked her, silently praying she will say yes.

Emily smiled yet again, and looked into his eyes. "Sure, why not. It'll be fun."

He grinned and chuckled. "It's a date."

* * *

**Yes, this is going to be a bit of a sad story. I hope you will enjoy it though! Let me know what you think! I apologize once again for any spelling errors, it is about 2 in the morning right now and I still have school tomorrow! Ahh!**

**Leave a review, please!**


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